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> “It’s hard for me to imagine that there are a lot of technology executives that are out there that are in a position of saying that they hope that people who

> “It’s hard for me to imagine that there are a lot of technology executives that are out there that are in a position of saying that they hope that people who wish harm to this country will be able to use their technology to do so,” What horseshit! Calling out the government for blatantly overreaching the constitutional authority it claims grants its power isn't even a little bit the same as hoping terrorists choose _your_ technology to harm people. That claim is not only intellectually dishonest, but it distorts the discourse to utter nonsense (which is precisely why they frame it like they do).

bigiain 12y ago
Indeed. I'm trying to work out if the correct response to that is to mention The Chewbacca Defense, or to ask if Josh Earnest has stopped beating his wife yet?
fit2rule 12y ago
This whole story is pitched in the most dialectic terms - you're either with us, or against us. But this fails to indicate there is a third way - we can use technology to make peace far more readily and easily than we use it to make war. I've got more Syrian, Iranian, and Libyan friends than ever before - and it would not be possible without technology being used to overcome cultural barriers to understanding. Yet the hatred and vitriol still flows. We are expected to be nationalist/patriot members of society, but when we personally make the decision to extend that society beyond the artificial borders constructed by the state to which we grant sovereign control, obviously someone is going to lose out. In the case of technology being used peacefully, its those who profit from war machines - military-industrial producers of hate and violence - who we must stand up to. Until such a time as the Western public is dissolved of its subservience to thugs and criminals - those who run the military-industrial establishment which corrupts all of humankind - we will continue to be oppressed between two forks of the same argument.
zzalpha 12y ago
Honestly, when I read that, I couldn't help but be impressed! I mean, there's horseshit, and then there's this brand of 100% pure, grade A, organic, grass-fed horseshit. I'm only disappointed it was delivered in such a hamfisted way. When I'm served horseshit, for god sake, dress it up a little! Just throwing it on a plate, ungarnished like this... it's insulting to my sensibilities!

bigiain 12y ago

Indeed. I'm trying to work out if the correct response to that is to mention The Chewbacca Defense, or to ask if Josh Earnest has stopped beating his wife yet?

fit2rule 12y ago

This whole story is pitched in the most dialectic terms - you're either with us, or against us. But this fails to indicate there is a third way - we can use technology to make peace far more readily and easily than we use it to make war. I've got more Syrian, Iranian, and Libyan friends than ever before - and it would not be possible without technology being used to overcome cultural barriers to understanding. Yet the hatred and vitriol still flows. We are expected to be nationalist/patriot members of society, but when we personally make the decision to extend that society beyond the artificial borders constructed by the state to which we grant sovereign control, obviously someone is going to lose out. In the case of technology being used peacefully, its those who profit from war machines - military-industrial producers of hate and violence - who we must stand up to. Until such a time as the Western public is dissolved of its subservience to thugs and criminals - those who run the military-industrial establishment which corrupts all of humankind - we will continue to be oppressed between two forks of the same argument.

zzalpha 12y ago

Honestly, when I read that, I couldn't help but be impressed! I mean, there's horseshit, and then there's this brand of 100% pure, grade A, organic, grass-fed horseshit. I'm only disappointed it was delivered in such a hamfisted way. When I'm served horseshit, for god sake, dress it up a little! Just throwing it on a plate, ungarnished like this... it's insulting to my sensibilities!